Flying High

Dentist gets teeth into transatlantic challenge

Jason with co-pilot David Plange

A dental entrepreneur has taken a novel approach to ensure his dental training company continues to hit the heights – one that has seen him recently fly an aeroplane across the Atlantic Ocean.

Since launching its Bristol and Shrewsbury clinics, Jason Buglass, Founder and Director of Dentale, has increasingly had to travel not just the length and breadth of the UK, but also to France, Germany and Italy, to meet with customers, suppliers, and fellow dental professionals.

A keen private pilot since 1998 with more than 1,000 hours flying experience behind him, Jason has now taken the plunge and invested in Dentale’s own light aircraft to enable him to combine this personal passion for flying, with the more practical benefit it brings of giving him the opportunity to conduct business ‘on the move’.  “As travelling to Europe involves a great deal of flying over water, I decided that a twin engine aircraft would be absolutely essential.  I really liked the look of the Diamond DA42 Twin Star model and after much research, managed to find what seemed to be the perfect purchase, low miles on the clock, excellent condition and a very keen price.  There was just one slight issue, it was based in the United States and I would have to fly it back myself!”

Jason enlisted the assistance of experienced ferry pilot David Plange to join him on the four-day transatlantic flight, which began in Statesville, North Carolina and took in refuelling stops at Bangor, Maine, Goose Bay in Canada, the tiny village of Narsarsuaq in Greenland, Keflavik in Icleand and Wick in Scotland.  The crossing took in some spectacular scenery, including icebergs, fjords and over water crossings but wasn’t entirely without incident.  “On our crossing to Iceland, we ran into a large front from a low pressure system, temperatures dropped to -26ºc and we rapidly started picking up ice, despite the best efforts of the aircraft’s anti-icing system.  Normally under these conditions, the best thing to do would be to divert to the nearest airport but unfortunately that’s not an option when you are 100 miles off land – David and I were certainly relieved to reach Keflavik in one piece,” Jason explained.  “But even that doesn’t quite reach the heights of worry my wife Emma felt at one point during our voyage.  David had a GPS based tracking system fitted, so people at home could watch our progress in real time on a website.  Apparently, at one point the website crashed and we appeared to have stopped, leading to what can only be described as a bit of a panic at home and frantic calls to air traffic control, only to be told we were just landing in Wick, blindly oblivious to all the fuss!”

After finally hitting terra firma again, Jason’s Diamond Twin Star – which has a 13.4m wingspan, a range of more than 1,000 miles, a top speed of 220mph and goes by the appropriate moniker M-OUTH – is now carrying out the slightly less adventurous duty of helping him go about his day to day business at Dentale.

With dedicated clinics in the South West of England and the Midlands, Dentale provides a diverse range of implantology training courses for dentists and dental nurses, including a five-day Introduction to Implant Dentistry, a ten-day Advanced Practical Implantology, a one-day Comprehensive Introduction to Dental Implants for Nurses and Advanced Implant Dental Nursing as well as the National Certificate for Dental Nurses.  Fully registered with the Care Quality Commission, delegates are able to gain practical, hands-on tuition in a clinical environment under the supervision of a team of highly trained professional tutors.

For further information about Dentale please call 08450 1788 99, email info@dentale.co.uk or visit www.dentale.co.uk.

You can read the published article here www.dentistry.co.uk

For further editorial information please contact:
Felicity Wingrove, Rhiannon Williams, or Chris Owens | Zen Communications | 01743 453186
felicity@zen-communications.co.uk | rhiannon@zen-communications.co.uk |
chris@zen-communications.co.uk

Dentale Helps Fill Gap Market For Affordable Dental Implants

Dentale’s Bristol clinic has got plenty of reasons to smile after celebrating a phenomenal first two years in business.

The implant dentistry training provider’s Portishead base has proved to be so popular with both dentists and patients since launching in October 2009 that the company has recently recruited another two highly qualified dental nurses, Ewelina Sosnowska and Reka Kovacs, to its growing team.

“Ewelina and Reka bring a wealth of dental nursing experience that will complement the fantastic team we already have in place, led by our vastly experienced lead tutor Kevin Bruce, and they join us at a particularly exciting stage of the company’s development,” Debbie Snelson, Group Manager for Dentale, explained.

Dentale, which operates out of a state-of-the-art clinic on the Middlebridge Business Park, runs a programme of introductory and advanced training courses that enable fully-qualified dentists to acquire not just the theoretical knowledge, but also the hands-on surgical experience they need to learn the discipline of implant dentistry. And because of its status as a fully-supervised education and training clinic, Dentale is able to offer dental implant treatment to patients for around £1,100, around 40% cheaper than the industry average.

Debbie Snelson commented: “In the past year alone, we’ve seen the total number of implants placed by dentists undertaking our training programmes almost double from the figures we recorded in 2010. Not only does this demonstrate the worth of our courses to dentists, but it also highlights a growing awareness amongst patients about the treatment options that are now available to them. Whereas dental implants may have previously been seen as an expensive
solution, with some people actually choosing to go abroad to obtain cheaper treatment, patients now have a viable option to receive cost-effective, yet high-quality treatment closer to home.”

 
For further editorial information please contact:
Felicity Wingrove, Rhiannon Williams, or Chris Owens | Zen Communications | 01743 453186
felicity@zen-communications.co.uk | rhiannon@zen-communications.co.uk |
chris@zen-communications.co.uk

Implantology one of the fastest-growing disciplines in dentistry

Debbie Snelson, Group Manager of Dentale, reveals how implantology continues to emerge as one of the fastest-growing disciplines in dentistry, and outlines why – for the next generation of dental nurses – it’s crucial to combine theoretical knowledge gained in the classroom with hands-on, practical experience.
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A local business is bucking the economic downturn and going from strength-to-strength by literally helping to put the smile back on people’s faces.
Bristol-based Dentale, one of the UK’s largest implant dentistry training providers, has seen such rapid growth since launching its Portishead clinic less than two years ago that it is now looking to expand its team by recruiting three additional dental nurses.

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And Implants For All

Guy Hiscott talks to dentist turned implant entreprenuer Jason Buglass about breaking down barriers and bringing treatment to the masses

It’s often said that the most successful dentists have something of the entrepreneur about them. After all, clinical excellence is all well and good –but it’s your business nous that lets you put it into practice.  Jason Buglass is no stranger to this concept. A successful private dentist with a string of general and referral practices around Telford, his entrepreneurial streak is perhaps a little wider than most. He also happens to be the head of Implantium, an implant import and supply company, and the brains behind Dentale, a rapidly expanding training business with a difference.  Jason has big plans – plans that include becoming the biggest implant company in the UK in the next five years.  No mean feat, considering that the majority of practitioners in this country are unlikely to have heard of Implantium.

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Brits having dental work abroad fail to spot “hidden” costs

Around 259,000 Britons between 16 and 64 have dental treatment abroad every year because they believe it is cheaper, according to research issued by Dentale, a dental implant training clinic.

Although many people think that they can save money by doing this, Dentale warns, depending on the dental treatment required, it could end up being more expensive due to the costs of hotels and flights for multiple visits.  Dentale’s research shows that between 2004 and 2008, 779,000 men and 514,000 women aged between 16 and 64 had dental treatment abroad because they believe they would save money.

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A Whole World of Endeavour Awaits

So, why do an implant course? Jason Buglass, managing director of Dentale and Implantium, takes you through the options.

In October 2007 the General Dental Council, after grappling with the issue of specialist lists, concluded that anyone involved in the delivery of dental implantology to the general public must demonstrate evidence of an adequate level of competence. As the undergraduate educational experience is polarised to preparing graduates to survive in the generality of primary care dentistry, the only option for the general practitioner to acquire the necessary skills is to attend an appropriate course.

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Top Tutor Joins Dental Implant Training Team